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" saw the piece on CBS on Friday night and my thought was to fire off some emails to the Chairman/CEO,the President/COO, and the CFO. I was able to get their names but not their email address. Any ideas? Maybe if they got some input as to how petty they are, they might change their mind." These folks could care less. Do high priced athletes care about charging kids $10 each for autographs? Do the Health Insurance companies really 'care' about you? It's all about the money. As far as us advertising for them. No way. Very few on this site, if any, have had enough folks (not the same folks day after day) view their layout(s) to be in anyway considered as advertising. No one on this site has told people to "ship BNSF, UP or whatever" because I/we run models of their trains. Besides, you can't emand payment for advertising, if you were authorized to advertise for a company in the first place. It's like placing a company name on the side of a race car. You'll get no money for it unless that company has signed a contract (sponsorship deal) with you. In fact, they can have you remove their name from the side of the car. In a case such as in racing, having the name on the side of the car, makes you a representative of the company. Not that anyone in their 'right mind' would ever beleive that because you have a UP or CSX or BNSF locomotive and rolling stock model train, that your represent the company. Though you never know. After all in this crazy time in which we live, an old lady was able to sue a fast food service (McDonalds, I believe) because she ordered and received a cup of hot coffee though the drive through. Then SHE spilled it on HERSELF and got burned, so she sued, and won, for the injuries she sustained! What did she think she was getting....a "COLD hot cup of coffee"? UP and the other railroads have the right to do this. So far, only the GREEDY upper management folks at UP have made efforts to do such. I like the one guy's comment, " It's like Bill Gates suing schools kids for their lunch money". Don't put it past him though. He didn't become the richest SOB on the planet because he went out of his way to do any good deeds for anyone. One of these days, railroading, as we know it will be gone. All the mergers and such have come about do to greed and mismanagement of companies. SP was one of the biggest. It's upper management were some of the greeediest. They single handedly destoyed an empire. In the early days, SP could have bought UP, but didn't want it. Now UP bought SP, along with WP and others. All of them were mismanaged and profits literally stolen by upper management (CEO's and such). For UP to become so worried about the literal 'nickels' that the model railroading industry might be making on it's logo and colors, only makes you wonders how badly their flag pole is 'cracking'. Think of the cost involved in a railroad and the limited routes they actually have. Trains only go where there are tracks and many new industries and businesses are nowhere near tracks. Tracks are expensive to install and maintain. Unfortunatley, I believe the days of railroads are nearing the end.There are plenty of faster and more direct ways to ship goods. Besides, most goods are no longer even made in the US! The day will come when there will be only ONE major railroad (like, I believe, it is in Cananda). Amazing. SP could not merge with Santa Fe because UP complained, But it was OK for UP to take SP? BN then went with Santa Fe. Now both railroads have all the same routes. Why do we need two big ones. Bye, Bye UP! Oh, and Santa Fe was no good player. They stole most of the assets of the SP during the short lived merger. Of course the same applies to the other two (CSX and Norfolk Southern). They could all be 'sucked up into one'. But don't for a minute take the statement that the railroads "helped build this country' as being anything close to a 'good deed'. Those railroad moguls were some of the most corrupt, cut-throat "businessmen" in the history of this country. they cared little about the country, only the money they could get there hands on. Doing good for the country wasn't even on their individualistic business plans! It is funny, though. A lot of model train enthusiasts are also railfans and vise versa. If not for these folks, most of the railroad history would have been lost, No photos, videos, etc. Harrassed and/or arrested for taking pictures of their stuff. And these are the folks continually punished by these money monguls. What we need is the government to stop subsidizing these businesses. Without the government subsidies they receive, they would all dry up and blow away like the dust in the wind. They get subsidies from our tax dollars to help them survive and now they want money from us to model their logos (though this primarily deals with the modeling manufacturers, but this cost will be transfered on to us (the comsumers/modelers). And what about the possible demand for monies from reproducing logos of 'fallen flags' (SP, SSW/Cotton Belt, PRR, NYC, WP, etc). Why should they be concerned with logos they spent thousands of dollars trying to paint over? We don't want the logos anymore, just the money? The railroads of old helped to build this great country. That was in a time when there weren't too many ways to ship items or travel across the country. First the automobile then the the airplane literally wiped out passenger train service. Then trucking cut heavily into freight traffic and is still cutting into it. Everytime a product or commodity is handled, moved, packed for shipping it costs money. Rail travel is now only good for large shipments of items that do not have 'short time' delivery dates. Railcars must be loaded and then unloaded into waiting trucks. Probably why much of the rail shipping has changed over to containers. Ever noticed how those trains seem to be getting shorter, even with the more powerful locomotives? And for those who said they were going to 'paint over' or otherwise destroy they UP model railroad stuff. I hope you were just venting. Don't do it. You spent a lot of time accumulating that stuff to make your model railroad better and more authentic. UP (and the other railroad companies) could care less what you do to your stuff, your house, your layout or anything. The only person your hurting is yourself. I think only one guy hit the real problem on the head. That was the guy that identified the model train manufacturing, distribution and retail industry. One or all of them are the one's making money on the logos, though I do not bleieve that ws their direct intention in the beginning. They were only trying to make the trains as close to the real thing as possbile for US (the model railroader/consumer). Many make equipment from nearly every railroad, not just UP. That includes those with only small or local followings (some short lines) and railroads that have been gone for years (PRR, B&O, WP,SP, etc). Also piant schemes not seen in nealry 50 years (SP Black Widows, etc). In the direction UP seems to be pursuing, you could no loner take photographs of anything. Because everything is owned in whole or some part by someone and that someone or persons would need to be paid. If you took a scenic photograph of a wooded mountain area and intentionally or unintentionally got the logging/lumber company in the photo, you would need to pay them for the photo, especially if you sold it. Now I understand the intelligence of the UP folks. Their name is actually St-UP-id. They just couldn't spell it right. "St-UP-id is as St-UP-id does". I'd better be careful. I might have to pay for that statement!
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